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          Portrait of Humza Yousaf

          Humza Yousaf’s plans if he becomes the SNP leader

          Media distortion

          Truth and Trust

          Kate Forbes, candidate for the SNP membership, official portrait

          Kate Forbes campaign for the SNP leadership contest 

          Health service

          Funding the Scottish Health Service 

          Sunflower in watercolour for the one year anniversary of the war in Ukraine 2022

          Euromove Scotland Campaign Raises Donations for Ukraine’s Frontline Communities.

          Nicola Sturgeon portraiture

          Nicola Sturgeon and Jacinda Ardern – what two shock resignations tell us about good leadership

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          Kate Forbes, candidate for the SNP membership, official portrait

          Kate Forbes campaign for the SNP leadership contest 

          Ash Regan and Tim Rideout Currency launch

          Ash Regan backs Scottish currency

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          Scottish elections: young people more likely to vote if they started at 16 – new study

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          Is Alister Jack sane?

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          A deeper dive into the history of Scottish fish farming

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          How farmed salmon is produced – stage one

          Dead salmons

          Death in our waters

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          Fish Farming in Scotland 

          Offshore wind farm

          How will local communities get a fair share of record investment from offshore wind farms?

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            Who is knocking our doors? A putative new pandemic?

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            The Ethiopia Medical Project

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              My father burned his uniform

              It took 53 years before a son finally learned, on his father's death bed, why Remembrance Day tormented his father so.

              Adam WetsteinbyAdam Wetstein
              13-11-2022 20:30
              in History, World War Two
              Sign commemorating the liberation of Bergen-Belsen and the those innocents who suffered at the hands of the Nazi culture of hate

              Sign commemorating the liberation of Bergen-Belsen and the those innocents who suffered at the hands of the Nazi culture of hate

              Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

              My father served nine years in the Canadian Army from 1938 to his return on the last troop ship sailing of RMS Queen Mary in 1947. He never talk to me about why it took so long to return fromEurope after the war, and his bitterness against his time overseas. It wasn’t until 2000, when he lay on his death bed, that he finally told me the whole story of what haunted him all those years.

              Whenever he spoke of the war he would regale us with his time playing basketball and never having to go into combat. My dad was a sergeant seven times over, only to be demoted to corporal for not strictly enforcing curfew on the men in his company; those who would come back late to barracks having spent too much time in the pub or with girlfriends.

              Gravestones at the Potočari genocide memorial near Srebrenica. Printed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported Licence
              Europe

              A Nightmare in Bosnia

              byMartje Rossand1 others
              13 November 2022

              On VE day in 1945 my dad went out and got plastered like everyone else, but the next day was the beginning of the war for him. All the Canadian battalions were brought to the parade ground and told they would soon be sailing home to Canada. However, before being dismissed the officer commanding asked, “Does anyone speak Yiddish, step forward”. My dad forgot the first rule of the army; never volunteer.

              He stepped forward with a few other fellows and was ordered to report the next morning to Stansted Mountfitchet airfield. This was one of airfields, built by the Americans, where the USAAF Eighth Air Force and the RAF used as base for bombing operations against Germany. Today it’s officially known as London Stansted Airport.

              The volunteers naively believed they were flying westward, home to Canada, and not having to endure days sailing across the Atlantic. However, instead they were on an easterly course to Bergen-Belsen death camp. One of many houses of Nazi horrors, where tens of thousands met their death, among them Anne Frank, who died just weeks before the British and Canadians liberated the Nazi concentration camp. My father was stuck in this hell for 18 months processing the countless survivors.

              “The horrors I saw still wake me at night”

              Former British army corporal Ian Forsyth, now 96, was among the soldiers who liberated Bergen-Belsen.

              Upon returning to Canada he threw his uniform into the coal furnace. A combination of being an eyewitness to the aftermath of the atrocities of Bergen-Belsen, and guilt for not being in combat. It led to great anger every Remembrance Day.

              I never understood his reaction to the war until I heard this story. It changed everything for me and, since 2000, is one of many thoughts of remembrance on this Day.


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              Tags: genocideHistoryNazi death campsremembrance day
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